USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The Berkshire jubilee > Part 3
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to hear the author of "Letters from Abroad," saying, " I have never seen people that seemed to me merer animals than the Swiss peasants amid their sublimest scenery." Still, there will be those every where, and where culture is general there will be many, from whose minds the tinge and coloring given by early scenes can never be entirely removed. And when these scenes are remarkable for grandeur or beauty, how strong is the impression which they often make ! How does it become incorporated into our very being, and the love of them become a passion! So has it been in Swit- zerland. It has been the Swiss soldier alone whom home sickness has unfitted for duty; in his regiments alone, has it been forbidden to play the air that re- minded him most of his native mountains and vallies. So it has been among the Highlands of Scotland; and so, to some extent, has it been with us. No doubt the call for this meeting has originated, in part, from a yearning to behold again these familiar scenes - be- cause the hillside, and the old house, and the tree by it, and the encircling mountains had become a part of our being, and would come back in our sleeping or waking dreams. I know how it is with you, my brethren from abroad. You wanted to see again these old mountains. How often have I heard those who have gone from us to the west, say how they longed to see mountains.
And here certainly, in the scenery of the County, God has dealt bountifully with us. I am willing to make every allowance that ought to be made for our
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own feelings, I am willing to confess that this scenery is more beautiful to us because it is ours. I should be sorry if it were not so. I envy not that philosophical , generality which would root up all the early green of the soul, and if there are any here who bless them- selves in having done so, I wish no communion with them. But making every allowance that ought to be made, it must be conceded that in no County in the State, and in few in the Union will there be found more fine scenery than in this of ours. On its southern border we have Taghcannic mountain with its Bash- bishe. Then we have those "gray old rocks,"
" That seem a fragment of some mighty wall Built by the hand that fashioned the old world To separate the nations, and thrown down When the flood drowned them."
And then we have Gray Lock, the highest point in the State, giving a view that for vastness and sublimity is equalled by nothing in New England except the White Hills. And then how much of beauty there is in a ride through the length of the County whether it be when the green of summer is in its full freshness, or when
" The woods of Autumn all around our vales Have put their glory on."
Probably most of us have read, for it used to be in a New-England school book, of that journey of a day that was the picture of human life. And if it were given to us to make the journey of a day that should be, not
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in its events, but in its scenery, the picture of our lives, where should we rather choose to make it than through the length of our own Berkshire ? What could we do better than to watch the rising sun from the top of Gray Lock, and his setting from the Eagle's Nest?
It is in connexion with such physical conditions, and such scenery as this, aided by our New England institutions, that there has sprung up a race of men of whom we are justly proud. Here, to mention only those now in office, originated the present Chief Ma- gistrate of the State, and one of the Judges of its Su- preme Court. Here those many distinguished and useful men from abroad, whom we welcome to-day. Nor have those been wanting who have illustrated the literature of our country. To say nothing of others, it is perhaps remarkable, secluded as this County has been, that the three American writers most widely and justly celebrated in their several departments, have lived and written here. It was in the deep quiet of these scenes, that the profoundest treatise of our great- est metaphysical writer was produced. It was here that the powers of our " truest poet," one, who in his own line of poetry, has not been excelled since the world stood, became known, and came to their matu- rity ; and here are still entwined, greener by time, the home affections of one whose social qualities have giv- en her a place as eminent in the hearts of her friends, as her power and grace of style, and her universal sympathy with all that is human, have given her as an author in the public estimation.
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But however much there may be in nature of com- panionship and instruction for man, she yet does not meet the demand which he cannot but feel for sym- pathy, and affection, and rational discourse. If man may be said to sympathize with her, she cannot be said to sympathize with him. If man speaks to her she does not answer him. She continues evermore working over and over again the same processes; she walks on in her perpetual round, and heeds not the wants, or the woes, or the joys of her children. The cry and the smile of infancy, the laugh of childhood, the twilight voice of plighted love, the desolation of the widow and the fatherless, the bridal party and the funeral procession are alike to her. She heeds them not. Alike in the forest where no eye sees her, and by the human habitation, she paints the flower, and plies the " tiny shuttle" with which she weaves the web of the leaf. When the eye that has looked upon her with the most enthusiasm, is closed in death, she does not weep. Man needs something more than this; and how different from this is that countenance of the mother into which the child that lies in her lap looks up! How different from those inarticulate voices of nature which we are so slow to interpret, is her voice that so early finds its way into all the chambers and recesses of the soul ! Here is another world which is not only comprehended by us, but which comprehends us. Here opens upon us that great theatre of human life where the turbulent desires, the stormy passions, the thousand sympathies, and hopes, and fears, and
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the beautiful affections of the soul of man are called forth.
But far less diversified is the face of nature in its action upon the spirit of man, than is that of human society. As the land and the water are divided into continents and oceans, so there are general divisions of mankind, into races marked by features differing scarcely less than those of the frigid and the torrid zone. These races are again divided into nations having cha- racteristics which cannot be mistaken, and these na- tions are subdivided into provinces, states, counties, neighborhoods; and in each of these a nice observer will find, however difficult it may be to express it, a difference of character which must become a condi- tion of growth, and a ground of diversity for those who are formed under its influence. This diversity is indeed continued to individuals, so that no where more than in character do we find a more striking manifestation of essential unity appearing under the forms of an infinite variety. Not, I will just say here, that I believe it is circumstances alone that make the man, but the cause of this diversity is to be found in the action and reaction of the free and personal pow- ers and of the circumstances in which they are placed.
And if God has dealt bountifully with us in respect to the physical conditions and aspects of nature, so has he in respect to the great features of that society by which we have been surrounded. These great features are those which belong to the society of New England.
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We are it is true upon the border of New England, but we are of it, and we cherish a love for it no less ardent than those who dwell around the spot where it was first peopled, and where its great heart beats. We are of New England. We love her soil, we love her institutions, we love her people. We think that the great features of her society, both presuppose and tend to cultivate the highest powers of man m orefully than any others.
Among these are, 1st, that absolute equality of right which is declared by the Declaration of Independence to belong to all-the right to use our faculties, and pursue our happiness in any way we may choose, so long as we do not interfere with the rights of others. 2d, A security of every man, however humble, in the enjoyment of this right, and of the results of his own labor, such as has been rarely enjoyed; which never can be enjoyed under a despotic government; nor under a government like ours if the public morals should deteriorate, or agrarian principles, or mob law should become prevalent. 3d, A great practical equality - the possession of the whole country by freeholders in farms of a small or moderate size, and the absence of any social distinctions which can prevent any young . person from finding his true position. Labor is hon- orable, and if some are degraded by ignorance, indo- lence and vice, it is their own fault or that of their friends, and not of our institutions. A fourth feature, which is also one of the causes of those preceding, is a universal diffusion, theoretically universal, and to a
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great extent practically so, of the education of common schools, and to as great an extent as practicable of the higher and of the highest means of intellectual cul- ture. A fifth feature, and one which has been more operative than any thing else in giving its peculiarities to New England character, is the religious element infused into society by the Pilgrim Fathers, and which has come down from them. Of this element the pro- minent characteristic, as it seems to me, was, the cul- tivation of reverence towards God and the State, with- out a nobility in the State, and without forms in reli- gion.
Berkshire was not indeed wholly settled by the de- scendants of the Puritans, but it was chiefly, it was sufficiently so to give direction, and tone, and charac- ter to society. In almost every town there was a con- gregational church and no other, and according to the simple rites of that, the people worshiped. In con- nexion with this worship there was a deep and per- vading reverence in society for the worship and the in- stitutions of God. The ministers of God were reve- renced; the Sabbath day was reverenced ; parents and the aged were reverenced. The young were taught to "rise up before the hoary head, and to honor the face of the old man." There was great purity in fa- milies, and family government was efficient. There the young were not merely taught their duties theo- retically, but, what is of far more importance, those habits of obedience and of industry were formed which are necessary to make good men and good citizens.
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Then the laws were reverenced. They were made by the people, but the idea was unknown that any irregu- lar assembly of people could be above law, or that they could abrogate it except by constitutional forms. With the existence of individual property and the fa- mily state, it is impossible to conceive institutions of government or of religion more simple, or attaining their end more effectually ; and it is impossible to ad- duce another instance in the history of the world, in which the principle of reverence has been equally de- veloped from an intellectual apprehension of the sim- ple majesty of those things which all forms are intend- ed to represent, and an impression of which all ap- peals to the senses are intended to produce.
Here it is that we find the true dignity of the Puri- tan character. There is that in God and his works, as man stands here with the cope of heaven above him; as he looks out into a peopled universe, and into infi- nite space; as he sees the mountains lifting up their heads, and the heaving ocean, which, in a mind right- ly constituted, must produce reverence ; and the same feeling is appropriately called forth by the manifesta- tion of magnanimity and goodness; by whatever is noble, or venerable, or godlike in man. Without this feeling, man, in this world of God, is like an animal with horns and hoofs turned loose in a well furnished and well arranged house. He has no perception of uses or proprieties, and you must either restrain him by fear, or influence him in some way by the grosser per- ceptions of sense. This feeling is then manifested in
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its purest and highest forms, when, without the inter- vention of any superstition, or merely human rites, or pomp of art, man is brought into the nearest and most intimate communion with God and his works, and worships him in spirit and in truth. With this feel- ing our Puritan ancestors were deeply imbued. Rising above the ordinary objects of ambition, wishing for no power except that which is connected with the sim- plest organization by which the objects of society can be realized, they found their dignity and happiness, not in what they possessed, or in the power of their will over others, but in what they were as the crea- tures of God, in the reverent cultivation of their affec- tions as before him, and in the prospect of immortali- ty ; and thus they became, in the great features of their character, specimens of the very highest style of man. Looking at a people, not simply as possessed of refine- ment and civilization, a high degree of which may consist with heathenism, but as truly cultivated in those faculties which are distinctively human. I think the highest point is reached when a pervading reve- rence, and the principles and affections necessarily connected with that, are called into action by spiritual objects and their relations, with the least possible ap- peal to the senses.
Since their day we have made great progress in the arts, in refinement and civilization, but have probably receded in that in which consists the true dignity and the highest culture of man. God seems to have raised them up for a special purpose - to infuse a leaven into
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the whole fermenting mass of this continent; and as a mighty wave, when the tide is coming in, flows on far beyond the rest and then recedes, so they, in the agitations of those times, seem to have been borne up to a point, which, from the general level of spiritual culture in the world, could not be retained. Accord- ingly the ebb came ; perhaps it is the ebb tide that is flowing yet; but we look for a mightier movement when the waters of salvation shall rise and overflow, and lie as a quiet sea reflecting the image of heaven.
It is, indeed, the fundamental question of the pre- sent day, whether the principle and the reverence that are necessary to the greatest strength and beauty of society, can be preserved in connexion with the sim- plicity of our civil and religious institutions. Men will not be trampled upon, nor will they have their sensibilities and their taste outraged. If there is not a general state of things that will secure them against this, they will retire behind a standing army, and be- hind forms. Relatively to certain states of society, these may be necessary ; and we ought to choose them for the sake of the liberty and the religion which may exist in connexion with them. But in such a state of things we should feel that the highest ideal of society was not reached, and we should be constantly apprehensive that both liberty and religion would be, as they have so often been, overlaid and crushed by that which ought to nourish and protect them.
But whatever the future course of events may be, the past is secure; and God has dealt bountifully with
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us in permitting us to live to the extent we have, under the influence of such a past. It has been shown, and nothing can falsify the record, that man may be- come so capable of self-government, that is, of imme- diate subjection to principle and to God, both in state and in church, as to accomplish as fully as they have ever yet been, all the legitimate objects both of the church and the State.
Nor has this County been behind the general stand- ard of New England, or of our own State in the fruits which might be expected from such a state of things. Here there has been general intelligence, security, and order. Here have been churches that have walked in the faith and order of the Gospel. Here have been christian pastors who have done honor to their pro- fession, and been models in it. Where shall we find more able divines, or better pastors, or men of a wider and holier influence than Edwards, and Hopkins, and West and Hyde? No where has the standard of ministerial character and acquirement been higher. Here too there has been a spirit of benevolence most diffusive, and unrestricted by a regard to sect. It is well known that if means are needed to carry on the great cause of education, or of benevolence generally, there is no place to which men come with the same confidence, and the same success, as to New England. It is chiefly among her hills that those streams rise, that flow over the west, and over heathen lands, to make glad the city of our God. In this respect, so far as I have the means of comparison, this County
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hath whereof to glory, though not before God. The Berkshire and Columbia Missionary Society was form- ed Feb. 21st, 1798, and so far as I know was the first missionary society formed in New England, if not in this country. The Connecticut Society was formed in June of the same year, and the Massachusetts Society in May of the year following. The formation of these societies so near the same time, shows that the spring had come over the land, but the fact that this was formed first, shows that Berkshire was among the ear- liest and most sunny spots. This society existed and was efficient till within a few years, when it was ab- sorbed in larger societies. This was a Home Mission- ary Society, and when it is remembered that here was formed the first Foreign Missionary Society, and, I may add, the first Agricultural Society, it will be seen that important movements have originated among us.
The statistics of benevolence, except in connexion with the Bible Society, I have not the means of ascer- taining. From these it appears that the donations of the Berkshire society to the parent society, have been larger than those of any other society, whether of a county or of a State, with the exception of the State society of Virginia which exceeds it by between two and three thousand dollars only ; and with the excep- tion of four State societies, and those in the city of New-York, the whole remittances of this society, 'are larger than those of any society in the Union. In some, and indeed in most of the States, there are coun- ty societies formed, but this society has given more as
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a donation to the parent society than the whole State of Vermont. And these facts are the more remarkable when we remember that all this has been done with- out any expense of agencies. The parent society has sometimes been represented at the annual meeting, but has never had an agent to traverse the County. I can hardly suppose it would be so, and yet I know of no reason to suppose that the comparison would not be as favorable to the County, if we had the means of comparing the statistics of the other great benevolent operations of the day.
This may seem more immediately to concern those who have remained in the County ; but I am speaking of the results of those influences under which we have been nurtured; and it is not to be doubted that our brethren who have gone out from us, have been equal- ly liberal. And if we have been blessed with the means of giving, and have been practically taught the great truth that " it is more blessed to give than to re- ceive," how could God have dealt more bountifully with us ? How much better is it to be nurtured among a plain people who give liberally for the objects of be- nevolence, rather than among those whose resources are either hoarded, or spent in the selfish ostentation of fashion! The heavens give their rain as they form it, and the noblest use of wealth is to dispense it as it is gathered, to refresh the waste places of the earth.
The features of society, and influences from it of which I have now spoken, we share in common with much of New England. There are others which be-
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long to us as the inhabitants of Berkshire. Unlike most counties, Berkshire, having a peculiar geological formation, is a place by itself, separated from the rest of the world by natural boundaries; it has also been a good deal secluded ; and while we have been a New England people, our business intercourse has been with New-York. Each of these circumstances has had its influence upon us, so that between us and our fellow- citizens of the eastern part of the State, there is a per- ceptible difference. To the first two circumstances mentioned, together with the beauty of our scenery, is owing that County feeling in which this occasion originated; and in connexion with these, if not in consequence of them, there has been extensively among us that happy combination of a cultivation and taste and refinement no where exceeded, with genuine sim- plicity and heartiness of character, which gives to so- ciety its highest charm.
But that the whole influence of these circumstances has been favorable, I would by no means assert, nor would I represent the aspect of society as better than it is. Seclusion is not always connected with innocence and simplicity. On the contrary there may often be found in such situations, ignorance, and narrowness; and inveterate prejudice, and low vice. Small and secluded villages, little clusters of houses among the mountains with some place where intoxicating drink is sold, are often, if we except the dens in the cities, as wretched and hopeless places as are to be found on earth. These we have had, and still have. They are
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as remote bays into which the current of reform and improvement sets back slowly. Owing in part, to the influence of these places, we are behind some others in the great Temperance Reformation. That cause has made encouraging progress here, and its present as- pect is hopeful, but I blush to say that there are still those among us who seem bent on continuing a traffic which, in enormity and moral turpitude may fairly be ranked with the slave trade. It is owing in part, to our seclusion also, that the recent movement in favor of our common schools has been more tardy and inefficient than it should have been.
But while we feel and regret these and other evils which a strange or an unfriendly eye might notice, we feel that they are slight in comparison with the bounties of Providence, and the civil and social bless- ings with which we are surrounded. We still rejoice to feel and say
" This is our own, our native land."
These are our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters, our wives and children, our schools and churches; these are our mountains, and vallies, and lakes, and streams ; our skies, and clouds, and storms ; and we feel that in casting our lot among them, God has dealt bountifully with us.
We now proceed to the second part of the subject, and consider the exhortation - " Return unto thy rest, O my soul." There is, my friends, a rest to the soul. Rest, rest-O! said one, that I had wings like a dove,
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then would I fly away and be at rest. And who has not said thus-at rest from turbulent passions and uneasy desires, from perplexing doubts and anxious fears, at rest from the annoyances and evils that come from the misconduct of others; at rest, not in mere quiescence, but in full fruition-and this rest is in God alone.
I have stated in the former part of the discourse how it is that our enjoyment arises, not independently from our constitution taken by itself, but from rela- tions and correspondencies between that and other things which God has created. He has constituted a relation between the organ of taste and food, between the ear and sound, between the eye and light, between the atmosphere and the lungs, between the whole ani- mate and inanimate creation and the capacities and wants of man, and from these sources man may de- rive, and in proportion as he conforms himself to the constitution of God, will derive, a subordinate and temporary good. But as an ultimate good, there is no correspondence between the soul and any created thing. In them the soul cannot rest. As containing a true and permanent good, they are all as broken cis- terns that can hold no water. No, God did not make us to be satisfied with the creature. In the fulness of his condescension, in the richness of his benevolence, in the yearnings of his paternal love he would take us to his arms; he proposes himself as our true good and final rest. It is indeed, a pleasant thing to behold the sun; very glorious is he as he cometh out of his cham-
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ber, and bathes earth and heaven in his light; but upon the soul that knows God and rests in him, there shines a light that is above the brightness of the sun. To him there is another morning risen upon the high noon of all created glory. That glory must fade. The sun himself must be quenched, but as the eye of filial love is strengthened to behold them, the splendors that surround the throne of God increase and brighten, and shall do so forevermore. Around that throne the noon- tide of glory eternally reigns, and as the eye of the child of God drinks it in, his peace will be as a river, and he will exclaim, this, this is my rest. Such is the rest of the soul. To such a rest we are invited.
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